I've had a love for drawing and painting for as much of my life as I can remember. During Middle School I found a fascination with
dreaming up alien worlds and spacecraft, with science fiction themes to go with them, and it was during this time I started trying to
blend science with art. During High School, this desire to create realism and plausibility in my artwork affected my painting technique both
positively and negatively. My Art Teacher was always concerned that I was too much a perfectionist and concerned with detail to be
a real artist, and I did have a tendancy to draw or paint a little more slowly than many other artists. But I could never see a problem
with that because any painting I'd enter into a competition would win a blue ribbon. At first I preferred painting on canvas with Acrylic
paints, until I discovered Airbrush Painting. And this is when I really began to think it was possible to paint very fantastic worlds that
actually looked realistic.
Once High School was over, however, the airbrushing came to an end, and I headed off to college. During this time video games and virtual
reality really started to take off, and I started to wonder if it were possible to create a virtual reality galaxy in which you could travel
to any point on any world or moon anywhere in that galaxy, anytime you wanted. Like being able to explore the galaxy like a god, without
anything stopping you, all in seamless virtual reality. So I started creating world maps and star maps with the goal of eventually creating
that galaxy. I thought it would be a daunting task, however, and had no idea where I'd even get access to software I could use for this.
Then one day, I was strolling through the software section of a bookstore and suddenly saw something called Bryce 3D. It looked incredible.
It was a piece of software that you could use to create and animate 3D scenery. It was the first piece of 3D software I'd ever laid eyes on,
and I was blown away! So I bought it, took it home, and spent the next few years trying to make the best digital art I could muster.
It was during this time that Star Wars Episode 1 came out. The few glimpses I caught of Coruscant (the city planet) just drove me crazy! It
was a science fiction world beyond my wildest dreams, and I just HAD to have a poster of that world to hang on my wall! But guess what?! No
poster of Coruscant was ever made! In fact, no poster of any world from any modern science fiction film had been made. I was shocked by the
fact that the filmmakers had no interest in publishing these gorgeous worlds in print form. So, I decided that's what I needed to do with my
artwork - Advance it to Hollywood quality and create posters of incredible worlds for everyone in the world to have, so they could experience
the motivation and inspiration I was so hoping to get from movie-based artwork posters.
Upon realizing the limits of Bryce, I moved on to 3D Studio Max, which is the most popular 3D software on the market today; many of the posters
on this website were shots created primarily in 3D Studio Max. But even after working with Max for years, I still was not Hollywood-competitive. I simply couldn't figure out why, so my art took so long to develop, and seemed to move from vision to tedium. Then,
one day I found something I could not believe - an online
Visual Effects School that sold DVD's of lectures by Real Artists in the Film
Industry! Without hesitation I bought
Dylan Cole's three
Matte Painting Training DVD's, and when I watched them my jaw
just dropped! He
created a Hollywood-quality Matte Painting right in front of me
without ever opening a single piece of 3D software.
He did it
entirely in Photoshop!!! After that I suddenly started finding
more and more Hollywood artists that start their work either on paper or in Photoshop as well.
I then decided making good art was not my only mission in life, but also preventing other young artists from wasting years of their lives
fiddling around in 3D software, like I did, when they should FIRST be learning how to digitally paint. 3D software is one of the last tools
you should use,
not the primary tool. So, on this site I've included pages devoted to the best
Art Method,
Software & Tools,
Art Training, and
Art Philosophy
for all young artists to use to get on the right path to becoming Hollywood-competitive. And I've also included links to
Real Hollywood Artists,
so you can see the difference between the work found on regular 3D art galleries and that created by actual
Industry Professionals.
With the skills I'm developing, thanks to the training I've received, the art I'm creating for all of you keeps getting better and better.
So stop by often, to see what's new!
Thank You!
